David Bellis’ three-year-old son Jacob took the selfie with the horse in the background while they were out for a walk in Prestatyn .

The family entered the image, which was shot from a public footpath, in a Thomson Holidays competition and won. But the horse’s owner Nicola Mitchell complained the picture was shot without her consent.

What do you think? Have your say in the comments box at the foot of this article

'No issue of trespass'

The intellectual property specialist with Capital Law said: “From a legal perspective, the owner of the horse has no cause for complaint. The father and child were on a public footpath (and not in the field) and so there is no issue of trespass.

This selfie landed a dad in a bizarre row over a £2,000 holiday (Image: Mercury Press)

“A photographer automatically owns copyright in the image and does not require permission of the horse (or its owner) to take the photo – much in the same way as photographers don’t require permission to take pictures of celebrities when they are out in public.

“The only issue from an intellectual property perspective, is whether the father, David, obtained his son’s permission, as owner of copyright in the photos, to use them in the competition – but given that young Jacob is getting a holiday out of it, I guess he’d say he gave consent.”

Mr Bellis, 31, has been branded “shameful and stupid” online by Ms Mitchell’s friends for failing to get her consent for the picture. He was accused by Ms Mitchell’s dad, Phillip Dunn, 67 of “worming his way into a £2,000 voucher”.

Mum-of-three Nicola, also from Prestatyn, said: “I didn’t give him permission to use our horse in a competition.” She added: “I didn’t even know that this competition was on. If I had known about it we would have entered it ourselves and could have won as Betty is always sticking out her tongue.”